Do you actually enjoy being pregnant?

[BadLad]

This question has been on my mind after reading the "Am I being unreasonable to want to be paid for being a surrogate mother" thread. In that thread the original poster said

I want to do it because I love being pregnant, and I love that i am able to help people who are not able to have a baby the traditional way.

The first part of that astounded me. I had always assumed that pregnancy actually felt like a chore, and was tiring and generally made life difficult.

Does it not? Is it actually an enjoyable experience?

We don't have any children, so I can't ask DW.

[VisualiseAHorse]

I loved the 'I'm growing a person!!' feeling I got every time I felt my bump. I remember lying in the bath and seeing the force of my baby's kicks ripple the water. Totes Amaze.

I hated the constant nausea and sickness (was sick every day for 20 weeks, sickness stopped after that but nausea continued).

I would be a surrogate if I got paid well for it. Or I would do it for free for my sisters.

[jaffajiffy]

In a word, "no". Three mc meant the whole first trimester had crippling anxiety as well as the runoverbyatrain fatigue, sickness, and stacking on weight due to steroids. Second and third trimesters were/are straightforward, but still not pleasant. I'm v grateful our child is thriving in my belly and I know the heartache of wrenching loss, but I'm hopeful of a joyful end, and at best a healthy pregnancy. It's so unlike every other previous version of me to be this ungainly, unemployed, unenergetic, immobile, just ON HOLD until he arrives.
38+4

[MaybeOrnot]

I absolutely loved being pregnant. I was very lucky in that I didn't have any morning sickness,just loads of creative energy.

[ohmygoshtake2yay]

i love it!! all of it. this is my second pregnancy and although i get terrible morning sickness and awful back ache i could spend my life being pregnant. i also want to be a surrogate as well as a large family. that fact a woman can grow a life inside her for 9 months is mind blowing i'll never get my head around it. im 21 so have a few more years letf in me to start new lives for my family and hopefully others!!

[Pigsmummy]

I loved it after the first 12 weeks, first 12 weeks were exhausting.

[LittlePickleHead]

I find its just far too LONG. I'm 35 weeks and feel like I've been pregnant forever. Morning sickness followed by pgp (thankfully seems to have eased now) has made it tougher and just lead me to not feeling like myself at all. I just feel removed from the person I normally am if that makes sense? I don't hate it, but don't relish it either and I'm looking forward to being 'me' again. Saying that I do love the kicks and hiccups, and think if it got to the stage I was sure I'd never have another I'd feel a little sad not to be doing it again

[Astr0naut]

Loved it the first time; felt like I was some bloody earth-goddess type thing. I got the whole glow and everything.

Hated it the second tim, mainly because I had spd and a manic toddler.

[EuroShaggleton]

hotcross my feelings came as a complete surprise. I wasn't expecting to love it all. I had been quite weirded out in the past, seeing friends' bumps move and thinking about the "alien" inside them and I was worried before it happened about the body changes, etc. but to my surprise I really loved it. Maybe waiting so long for those few precious weeks helped. That and the fact that I never got to the throwing up/huge bump/spd stages!

[motherinferior]

Loathed every minute of both my pregnancies.

[Beckett3]

My back hurts, I'm either nauseas or being sick, I can't sleep comfortably on any side, I get heartburn almost every day and I'm always tired and I'm only 21w with dc4.

But I love it, every single second of it. I love knowing that I'm growing life, I love feeling her kick, I just love it. All the bad points won't be there forever and soon I'll get to meet my beautiful little baby.

[MarinaIvy]

I loved it, even the rotton stuff. OK, I didn't actually enjoy the back pains, the tedium towards the end, the sleep issues, etc, but we were TTC for so many years, and we knew it was going to be our only one, that I relished every minute of it when I finally was pregnant.

All that aside, there were moments that were enjoyable in and of themselves. I loved knowing I was carrying a new life, that I finally knew what a woman's body is really for, all my excess weight going to the bump!, I liked how nice people were, loads of things...

Even if I were in a position to have more children, I can't say I'd be a surrogate just because I like the way it all feels, but I did like being pregnant.

[MogwaiTheGremlin]

I hated pretty much every second of it and the only thing that kept me going was the thought of a baby at the end.
The worst thing is you can't complain because it sounds so ungrateful when you're incredibly lucky to be pregnant and plenty of people would give anything to be in your shoes.
So when you've thrown up 3 times before breakfast and someone offers you a ginger biscuit you have to smile and accept it rather than hurl it at their head!

[ToThreeOrNotToThree]

I quite liked being pregnant, until about the last month or so.

[KindleMum]

I hated it. Had HG from 6 weeks until delivery both times. Multiple hospital admissions. Surgery afterwards to repair the damage to my oesophagus from the vomiting. I adore my 2 DCs and they were completely worth it but I am so glad to know that I will never be pregnant again. I couldn't do it again, I'd sell a kidney before I'd be a surrogate!

[MumofWombat]

Expecting DC2. Both children were very much planned and wanted but I've hated almost every day of my pregnancies. I joked on fb today that I'm playing pregnancy complications bingo. Pregnancy is horrid, I'd have loved to have been one of those that glow and sail through it but I get all the crappy symptoms. Not much longer to endure though, csection tomorrow with tubal ligation. I just can't do this again.

[Vocalista86]

I'm finding it exciting but incredibly stressful. This first trimester, with it's symptoms that come and go and you worry about every little change, is far from a walk in the park.

[Saundy]

I was quite naive optimistic about pregnancy but I was way off the mark. I'm well in the trenches of my first trimester & I feel as though pregnancy has declared war on my body. It's exhausting, painful & depleting.

Saying that I am hopeful for the second trimester & looking forward to finally being able to start enjoying it then.

Not so sure about the third.

[SeriousStuff]

It's turned me into a whinging, self-pitying, nausea-filled, shattered wreck!

I love the fact that I'm creating this incredible new life and I love how excited DH gets about it but I want to feel like me again!

[crazypaving]

I hated it. felt massive, tired, heavy, and like my body wasn't mine any more. plus spd. everyone's different though!

[Pudgy2011]

I had debilitating morning sickness and fatigue for the first 12 weeks but after that I loved it. Apart from the fact that i just looked like I was getting fat until I hit 26 weeks and looked pregnant.

Loved every bit of it, can't wait to do it again.

[reastie]

Absolutely hated being pg (apart from the fact I was incubating DD) as I felt awful the whole way through. To the point where I've decided not to have another DC as I can't go through it again. I didn't care about looking a state but it was the sickness and pre natal anxiety that I couldn't stand.

[FoofFighter]

Apart from the first few weeks of constant nausea and bone crippling exhaustion yes I love it. After TTC #3 since 2005 with my now exH, then with my partner now, losing a baby I am certainly counting my blessings with this one (20 weeks) and a bit of discomfort/ungainliness/fat isn't going to make me hate this experience.

I feel quite sad for those who feel they hate it :(

[Jayne266]

I hated being pregnant that much I vowed never to have any more dc now 8 months after DS being born I would love another

[WhenSheWasBadSheWasHopeful]

I hate it. With dd I had crippling fatigue in the first trimester. That disappeared at 14 weeks only to be replaced with spd at 15 weeks.

I also hated the fact you just look fat till 26 weeks. 9 weeks pregnant now and this is a much longed for baby but I think I still feel the same about pregnancy.

I just try and look at it like its a plane journey. Uncomfortable and boring but it will be worth it when you get there.

[gertrudestein]

Was ttc for a long time before I finally became pregnant, having reluctantly accepted that we weren't going to be able to conceive naturally. So I am both incredibly, incredibly grateful and also absolutely hate this process.

The nausea, the tiredness, the stress, the anxiety, the hormones... Personally it's probably got a lot to do with the fact that other life-events have made this a particularly stressful time. But I also think a lot of it is hormonal.

Some women seem to get filled with happy hormones - they're all serene and lovely and smiling to themselves. Others (like me) have the opposite -panic attacks, crying, waking up in the middle of the night convinced i've done something during the day that could hurt the little one, massive guilt at having created a life that I don't know I can care for properly, and the overwhelming fear that, if I'm this bad at pregnancy, how crap will I be as a mother?

I think I have to keep telling myself it's the hormones that are making me feel like this, even if it's more likely to just be me :(